Evolution, Mind & the Mechanism of Thinking

Alan J. Oliver

Abstract

In this article, I explore the questions why we think and how that works, and for that we need to go back to where it all began. We know that evolution is a process of adaptation, and if my assumptions about thoughts being quanta of moments of awareness within our sensory system, being observed by the dispassionate observer at the level of Mahat are correct, then there is not very much adaptation required for those moments in which we are aware of our thoughts to become what we call Mind. Earlier I noted that mind is always busy and therefore always occupied with one thought or another. Through evolution our sense of self, ego, would become a viewpoint attached to every thought, further reinforcing the idea that I am thinking, and with it the notion of a mind.